(Thanks and credits for sharing this information go to the Brazilian Secretariat of Social Communication - SECOM)

Social development and progress continue to stay strong in Brazil:

• Brazil tops global ranking in fight against hunger: In a recent report published by anti-poverty NGO ActionAid, Brazil ranks first among developing countries for its progress in the fight against hunger.
   

• Brazil’s “Bolsa Familia” income transfer program raises literacy rates: Newly released data reveals that half a million beneficiaries of Brazil’s cash transfer program became literate in 2006 and 2007, and the number of people registered for public literacy programs increased by 12 percent.

With one of the world’s largest populations, Brazil’s government has invested heavily in programs to eliminate poverty and hunger and improve access to services and opportunities in low-income communities. These efforts and their success to date earned Brazil’s President Lula UNESCO’s prestigious Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize in July, and Brazil’s Minister of Social Development the World Future Council’s Future Policy Award just a few weeks ago.

Detailed information can be found below.

ADePT, the Software Platform for Automated Economic Analysis, is a free program designed to simplify and speed-up the production of analytical reports. Created by the Research Department (DECRG) of the World Bank, it can be used to extract indicators from micro-level surveys and present them in a print-ready form. ADePT can generate sets of about 50 print-ready tables and graphs in different areas of economic analysis, and already includes, among others, modules on Poverty, Inequality, Labor, Gender, Education, Health, and Social Protection.

ADePT helps both to minimize human errors and to introduce new techniques and methods to a wide audience of practitioners. It can be used as a tool for sensitivity analysis, data checking, and simulations - it's an ideal tool for training! Tasks that take several weeks of work from qualified consultants could be accomplished within minutes using ADePT. Furthermore, by producing a standard set of tables and graphs, the program allows standardization of the economic statistics among countries expanding the possibilities for research on intra-country comparisons.

The website contains a free, downloadable version of the software, as well as video tutorials in several languages, PowerPoint presentations, examples and more about how to use ADePT by utilizing different data sets. Please visit www.worldbank.org/adept for more information.

The current version of ADePT requires a prior installation of the STATA software, but updates might be available in the near future to bypass this requirement.

by Otaviano Canuto

Once upon a (not long ago) time, there was a widely established set of blueprints for regimes of monetary and exchange rate policies expected to fit a full range of economies, and to serve as a guide for international monetary cooperation. That world is gone with the global economic crisis. As I explain in my new policy note, The Arrival of Asset Prices in Monetary Policy, a reshuffling of views on monetary and exchange rate policies will probably accompany new financial regulation.

Here are some of the issues I discuss in my note–and hope to discuss with you too:

(Thanks and Credits for this information go to the Brazilian Secretariat of Social Communication - SECOM)

Brazil is one of the world's fastest growing economies. An annual socioeconomic survey of over 150,000 households conducted by the Brazilian Government showed notable advances in housing, employment, education, access to services and a drop in income concentration among Brazilians for the year 2008 compared to the year 2007. The findings of this report, released on September 18, 2009, indicate that, thanks to major government investments in infrastructure, education, and local development, Brazil’s citizens have prospered alongside the booming economy.

According to the National Survey by Household Sampling (PNAD), conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Brazil saw an increase in the home ownership rate, formal jobs and income for workers, and home access to sewerage, telephone and Internet systems.

In 2008, the number of employed workers in Brazil was 2.8% higher than that of 2007, and totaled 92.4 million people.  This increase came largely from the construction sector, with growth of 14.1% that generated 900,000 new jobs across the country.  34.5% of employed Brazilians in 2008 were under formal contract employment, receiving all rights and benefits granted by law. This is an increase of 2.1 million people, from a 33.1% rate in 2007.  This increase resulted in a 5.9% increase in the number of Social Security taxpayers in 2008 as compared to 2007.

On September 24-25, twenty world leaders met for the third time this year and reiterated their common goal for global cooperation on the road to recovery from the financial crisis. The G20, which includes developed nations and fast-growing emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India, accounts for about 90% of the world’s economic activity; it is quickly replacing the G8 as the leader of world economic management.

The following important points emerged during the Summit:

• A stronger regulatory framework and macro- economic policy is necessary for a sustainable and balanced growth of the world economy
• Due to the current economic situation, the United States should no longer be viewed as the consumer of last resort; countries such as China need to boost domestic demand and stimulate their own consumer spending
• The G20 pledged to shift 5% in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) quota share to emerging economies from over-represented countries such as Saudi Arabia, with the goal to improve the organization’s effectiveness by increasing voting shares and access to IMF loans for developing countries. Also, at least 3% of the World Bank’s shares will shift to these emerging countries.
• Although no cap has been adopted on banking bonuses as requested by many European governments, tighter regulations will be enforced on financial systems, such as enforcing new guidelines for financial pay schemes, in order to limit risk taking and build up new capital.
• Little progress was made on climate change, although President Barack Obama urged the World’s nations to end their subsidies for fossil fuels such as coal and oil, which are the main sources of global warming according to scientists.

An advance version of the World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate is now available online. With a focus on climate change and its negative impacts on vulnerable populations, this year's Report also covers innovation and technology diffusion, land and water management, and other important factors for accelerating development.

This version is not final and may be subject to further changes. The final WDR 2010 will be out in October.

(By Otaviano Canuto)

In PREM Note 141 released last week, Milan Brahmbhatt and Luiz Pereira da Silva point to several structural differences between the global economy today and in the 1930s that tend to differentiate the current crisis from the Great Depression. The larger weight of faster-growing developing countries in the current world economy is among those differences, one that bodes well for recovery prospects.[1]

As can be seen in Chart 1, there has long been a close correlation between economic cycles in developed and developing economies. More recently, since the early 2000s, this has been combined with systematically higher growth rates in developing relative to developed economies. As the authors remark, “there has been no decoupling in the cyclical component of developing country growth”, while “there has arguably been a decoupling in underlying trend rates of growth” (p.2). A similar pattern remains even if China and India are taken out of the picture.

              Source: PREM Note 141(p.3)

Ernst & Young interviewed a large of number of managers and owners of companies around the world, first in January 2009 and again in June 2009 [1]. Companies were surprised by the speed and severity of downturn and the impact was more than expected in January 2009. Many respondents feel that the crisis has permanently changed their operating model (43%), the regulatory framework for their sector (45%) and risk management (56%). The compilation of their responses on the impact of and responses to the crisis is quite revealing. The main companies were surprised by the speed and severity of downturn and the impact was more than expected in January 2009; findings can be tabulated as follows

1. About 82% of respondents still having difficulty in accessing credit and this is impacting upon their investment strategy
2. Companies are facing heightened concerns over risks while managing their assets, and over likelihood of more regulations
3. Almost 9 out of 10 accelerating cost reductions through review of capital investment and employee reduction but only 67% have been in reducing costs, particularly through IT and real estate.
4. Companies using this crisis to outsource (23%) and for strategic acquisitions (34%). About 32% are disposing of assets to increase cash and liquidity.
5. Only 19% see growth returning during second half or 2009 and 38% in 2010.
6. Remaining respondents feel that future is bright later on.
7. In January 2009, only 20% planned for entering new geographic markets but by June 2009, 33% expect to.

As part of Youth-to-Youth Community's Global Youth Conference 2009, the Y2Y Group is launching a 2009 Essay Competition on the theme of "Youth Entrepreneurship in times of crisis". There are great prizes to be won!

Further details are below and in the attached document.

Most growth analysis has been primarily a macroeconomic subject with particular emphasis on contribution of capital, education adjusted labor, and total factor productivity to output growth (see Collins and Bosworth 1996, Hu and Khan, 1997, Sarel 1997, Sala-i-Martin 2000, Hall and Jones, 1999, Easterly and Levine 2001). Importance of macroeconomic policies as represented by budget deficits, exchange rate premia, inflation, trade openness and inflow of foreign Investment etc are tagged on in the growth analysis at a macroeconomic level. A few studies have invoked ethnic differences and other exogenous factors to understand cross country differences in total productivity growth and per capita incomes. 

In trying to understand the rapid output growth of East Asian ‘miracle’ countries, Krugman (1994), Young (1995), and others were engaged in an interesting debate on whether capital accumulation or total factor productivity growth best explained the high and sustained output growth of these countries. Their conclusion that capital accumulation was most important was based on macroeconomic data analysis in a factors of production approach to sources of growth. Others have found that the growth of output is strongly correlated with productivity growth in developed and developing economies as reported by Kehoe and Prescott (2002) and Solimano and Soto (2004), and this co-movement appears to be stronger the longer is the time period considered.